Young Children Bloggers

I asked Adi to keep some kind of daily (more or less) journal of his life, and so far he's doing it using paper and pencil. But what's to stop seven year olds from blogging, right?

Usually, a web blog maintained by a young person focuses on teenage angst, or world news, or links to this or that friend. What would happen if you ask a second grader to keep a blog?

Hangleton, a British school, allows children as young as seven years old to blog. And this has had a positive impact on the performance of the children bloggers.

Here's one about trains.

I wonder if this will take-off in the Philippines. Some people I've approached avoid blogging because they don't feel comfortable writing in English. They got surprised, though, when I mentioned that there are quite a few blogs written in Taglish, or Tagalog.

The web design doesn't have to be too flashy, and the writing does not have to be perfect. All it takes is for you to simply try it. You don't need to follow a strict schedule (although it does help). Write whenever you feel like it. Share your dreams, your poems, your opinions.

Anyway, if you're an educator in the Philippines and would like to experiment with student blogs (or even teacher blogs), I would be happy to help you set-up a blogging system for your students and your peers. It will help them get more comfortable with writing, and it will also help them express themselves.

Hangleton Community Junior School Weblogs
http://www.hangletonweblogs.org/
[ First posted on 06/15/2004 by Manuel Viloria ]